We know a lot of you are eagerly and patiently waiting for the next version of Overbridge. In December we told you that we were aiming for a February release, but as we approach the middle of the month, we realize that we will not be able to keep that deadline.

As with all software development, it is sometimes tough to accurately estimate the time required to finalize an application. We can only humbly ask you to bear with us a little longer while we get everything up and running to the high standards both you and we expect from an Elektron product.

looks like it’s not gunna be for February/March at least…
Really dissapointing…
Working a new machines, then released them, then many bugs mentionned so again working a new update to fix it…
I like to see new stuff don’t get me wrong, but I also like buying machine that works as expected after couple of month but not years…

Beta testing will show u that they are actually working on OB.
But to be honest I feel like they had been working on new MKII and Digitone last years and they haven’t worked that much on OB.
Same with DT updates, they started to work on it since January probably.
I hope I am wrong, but shame to list overbridge as a feature to sell more machines when nothing is ready and hasn’t been shown to customer.
absolutely nothing about OB at NAMM…

I worked in many startups and young companies and the temptation is always there to “forward sell” your products. However, I always told my teams to “under-promise, over-deliver”… Might make for a tougher first sale, but your clients will stick with you. The relative importance of overbridge in the big picture is not the point: when one makes statements, he/she have to be able to deliver on them, else rather be prepared to face the disappointment. However, it seems Elektron clients will complain but still buy their products!

I, for one, would have expected a better explanation than going from “We’re going to deliver sometimes in February” to “We’ll deliver sometimes”.

Given the surprise announcement of the Digitone and short lead time to it being for sale, I think elektron are now taking a much more conservative view on releasing any information about future product.

No major harm that OB and Digitakt were a learning phase in that regard in my view.
Originally I was against OB and just wanted hardware and firmware, but after getting used to how OB opens up the A4 and AR, I’m very much looking forward to the DT being much more useful once it has its full OB and librarian software support available.

Thanks for keeping us informed. I’m sure people are going to be annoyed, but I think it’s safe to assume Elektron are doing the best they can to produce the best version of Overbridge as quickly as possible.

At the same time, these delays are getting increasingly worrying: while I don’t doubt Elektron’s desire to deliver OB or the hard work which is clearly going into it, each of these delays makes me a bit more sceptical about their capacity, and the other assurances we’re being given.

Given we’re now, what, 9 months past the original launch date I’d really like to see a bit more openness and clarity: what’s been holding stuff back? What needs to happen from here, not just in terms of dates but the actual process? I’ve seen Simon mention that Elektron now have enough staff, which sort of suggests there were too few previously: how’s that being managed, and what impact has it had? How much have the various post-Digitakt device launches taken resources away from Overbridge?

I guess talking about these kinds of difficulties isn’t a normal situation, but given the delays and frustration, and the huge and very engaged community here, I think it would be really helpful for Elektron to have more of those conversations with us.

Software development is extremely hard to estimate reliably. Development of software that needs to integrate with various other pieces of software across two operating systems at low latency and high performance is especially is even harder to estimate reliably

ehg:

What needs to happen from here, not just in terms of dates but the actual process?

Elektron should not have announced, and should never again announce software features and release dates until they’re good and ready, or at least not until they’re far into a beta testing stage.

ehg:

I’ve seen Simon mention that Elektron now have enough staff, which sort of suggests there were too few previously: how’s that being managed, and what impact has it had?

I would rather the DT & DN OS’s get fixed before OB becomes the focus of the software team.
If OB drops before the bugs are ironed out in those OS’s we will be waiting probably another year before DN & DT are fully functional.

Once OB drops it’s going to be a huge support and bug fix drain on Elektrons resources, dealing with all the little problems that come with computers.

Given how bug ridden the DT & DN are, I don’t hold much hope for OB anyway.

Really disappointing for sure though. I bought two digitakts because I knew the integration with OB was going to be possible withing months. The December news wasn’t very surprising and I fully understand it’s a lot of work. This announcement is surprising though. I’m a bit afraid that it won’t be released until the end of this year. Which would mean having around 40 grooves sitting and waiting in my digitakts for over a year before I can produce them into releasable tracks. And not being able to back them up including the samples, means they are stuck until OB release. This wouldn’t be a problem if it got released right now, but I can’t confidently produce more grooves in the digitakts now. It’s beginning to feel like lost time.

I understand the problems that can occur during development, but I think it’s fair to voice our disappointment in this situation by now. As @t said: under-promise, over-deliver in the future would be a much better idea. And I for one learned now to never make plans based on something that isn’t released yet. I have to completely change my promotional plans. That’s my own fault

Good luck with the development Elektron, hope you can deliver it at least before summer or something… And again thanks for being transparent in this matter!